The Long Road to Vladimir
Arrival in Russia, 22 June 2008

After months of planning, days of orientation, and hours on shuttles, airplanes, and buses, our Fulbright group is finally here in Vladmir, Russia. The direct, non-stop flight from Chicago to Moscow was LONG, but uneventful. Ok, I guess there was one special event, namely the barf-bag puppet theatre created by our own Scott Read to entertain the masses - inspired by sleep deprivation and adrenaline. So, we've identified our comic relief in case anyone needs a laugh in the next month.

Immediately upon walking through the green corridor through Customs, I noticed a radical difference from my airport experiences in 1992 and 1994. About 70 per cent of the automobiles are European or American, as opposed to the glut of Ladas from the 90s. The bus followed a highway that went around the southern part of Moscow - our first glimpses of Russia included a mosaic of old and new: thick stands of gorgeous white birch trees along the highway, peppered with dachas (and some of the dachas were bigger and fancier than any home I've ever lived in!); gas stations; car dealerships (Volvo, Ford, Audi, Renault); garden and home centers; lumber/building material yards; a tree farm (to replenish the garden centers, no doubt); and shopping centers, including an enormous IKEA.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant just inside the Vladimir region, "Skazka". It was like a diorama of the best of Russian fairy tales. The wood carvings of fairy tale characters were amazingly intricate and impressive. If I was more familiar with Russian fairy tales I could name the characters whose wooden likenesses graced the building and grounds, but in my state of exhaustion, it seemed like a magical land. Lunch was amazing and enormous (round one of the continuing saga of "death by food," which one experiences thanks to gracious, hospitable Russians).

Our host families were waiting for us at the American Home in Vladimir and they quickly took us "home". After more food and a multi-cultural game of 20 questions, I finally rolled into bed to rest up for more adventures.

Fulbright Trip to Russia

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many entries about an exciting CEERES project that is finally coming to fruition. CEERES was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) grant to take a group of K-12 educators to Russia this summer. The purpose of this long journey is to help the educators learn about this vast country and to bring back discoveries about Russian culture and history to share with their students. CEERES will be collecting the pedagogical materials that come out of this trip and will disseminate them as far and wide as possible - they will all be free and open to the public.

The group gathered for the first time at The University of Chicago for a two-day orientation before we hop on a plane at O'Hare on Saturday and fly to Moscow. In the coming days, I hope to share our adventures with the world as I talk about our month-long journey. I hope that a few people will be inspired to follow along with this blog and - if you are educators yourselves - maybe you can use some of our discoveries in your own classrooms.

You are very welcome to be part of our journey.

With best wishes,
Meredith Clason
Associate Director
CEERES

FALLING OUT OF TIME: New Documentaries from the Former Soviet Europe

This Thursday, April 3, the documentary program at the Art Institute of Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center features Ukrainian director Igor Strembitsky's film Wayfarers (Podorozhni), a 10 minute black and white documentary filmed in a state clinic for the mentally ill. Wayfarers was awarded the Palme d'Or for best short documentary at Cannes in 2005.

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FALLING OUT OF TIME: New Documentaries from the Former Soviet Europe
Curators Oona Mosna and Jeremy Rigsby in person

Thursday, April 3, 6 pm
Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / 312-846-2600)

Curated by Oona Mosna and Jeremy Rigsby, directors of Windsor's annual film and video art festival, Media City, the program includes Ukrainian Igor Strembitsky's 2005 Cannes-winning Wayfarers; acclaimed Russian director Sergei Loznitsa's haunting Halt (2000); Victor Asliuk's The Mine (2004, Belarus); and Oksana Buraja's Mother (2001, Lithuania), among others.

Phillip Svehla
International Program Coordinator
Chicago Sister Cities International Program
78 E. Washington St. 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602
www.ChicagoSisterCities.com
312-744-8074
Phillip.Svehla@cityofchicago.org

Nauryz, Spring in Central Asia, Roksonaki in Chicago

CEERES is co-sponsoring an upcoming concert by the Kazakh band Roksonaki. Details on their performances are below. Their tour coincides with the Persian celebration of spring, Nowruz, or Nauryz. This celebration has various expressions among the various peoples of the region. I heard a fascinating article about Nauryz on NPR Weekend Edition Sunday (March 16), and you can find it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88156775

Roksonaki will be playing their unique blend of traditional and contemporary Central Asian music on The University of Chicago campus (Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E 59th St) on Monday, March 31 at 7pm. Check here for more info!

Getting news in/from the Balkans

Back on March 6, we treated to vary insightful and provocative discussion about the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, its closing, and the realities and processes for continued justice-seeking in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. One of those panelists, Gordana Igric, founder the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), sat down with Jerome McDonnell for an interview on WBEZ Chicago's Worldview - http://www.wbez.org/Program_WV.aspx?episode=19529.

BIRN has a great on-line journal of reporting from the region - BalkanInsight.com

Pretty soon the March 6 on the ICTY will be podcast on CHIASMOS.

Abkhazia asks for recognition of its independece

Citing the recent break of Kosovo from Serbia as precedent, the breakaway region of Abkhazia in Georgia recently passed a resolution asking the international community to recognize its independence. This move came right after Russia lifted sanctions on the region. Russia says this is not related to Kosovo, whose independence Russia does not recognize.

Some news:
BBC: Abkhazia in independence appeal
International Herald Tribune: US, Georgia caution Russia against backing militants in breakaway Abkhazia
Reuters: U.S. says it regrets Russia's moves on Abkhazia